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| Frottage, 2009 Installation view |
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| Frottage, 2009 Installation view |
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| Henri Michaux Untitled, circa 1942-44 Graphite on paper 12 2/3 x 18 1/9 inches (32.2 x 46 cm) |
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| Henri Michaux Untitled, 1944 Graphite on paper 10 1/2 x 15 ¾ inches (27 x 40 cm) |
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| John Kelsey Untitled, 2009 Graphite on paper Sheet size: 11 x 8 ½ inches (28 x 21.6 cm) |
'Frottage: “Who does it anymore? Who really did it ever?” These questions are posed in the press release for the exhibition simply titled, Frottage. Referring to the technique of creating marks through the rubbing of objects, frottage is a French term popularized by Max Ernst, and adopted by the surrealist movement. Beginning with Ernst, and moving into artists working today, this exhibition is an intelligent meditation on a process quite easily perceived as passé. The show is organized to function just as frottage itself does, to reveal hidden qualities, narratives, meanings of things we may take for granted, providing us with a framework for renewed appreciation.
Ernst had discovered that through creating rubbings of objects, he, as artist, functioned as a medium through which the underlying material expressed itself. (...) Histoire Naturelle speaks to the subjectivity of knowledge: one illustration is a direct mimicry of Dürer’s earlier fantastical, yet popularly accepted depiction of a rhinoceros (however this time facing the reverse way, a visual pun on the printing process). Also on view are individual drawings by Ernst: the elaborate images he builds from the rubbings are testament to the fertility of imagination granted to the artist by this process.
Some of the most captivating works in the exhibition are those by Henri Michaux, interspersed throughout the gallery, and contributing, along with Ernst, to the historical foundation for the more contemporary works. Michaux’s images, revealing human, animal, and ambiguously anthropomorphic forms, convey both a visceral randomness and ethereal quality. There is an apparent effortlessness combined with whimsy as if, through these rubbings, the artist has revealed some kind of strange and charmingly idiosyncratic spirit world.
Other artists in the show utilize frottage for a more deadpan reveal of seemingly ubiquitous materials. Upon first glance, John Kelsey’s rhythmically simple abstract images may be read purely for their aesthetic and formal strengths. On a closer look, they are in fact rubbings of bubble wrap, a material that consists of practically nothing but air. (...) On the bottom right corner, and in contrast to the direct rubbings, are facsimiles of the signatures of Picasso, Jacqueline Kennedy, Leonardo DaVinci and Shirley Temple (and one cut off and unreadable), meticulously hand-traced in graphite.
Although unified by a single technique, the intentions of the artists in the exhibition vary greatly. When considered as a whole, the method of frottage may be seen as a reference to the act of unveiling, to the investigation of the obscure, and to the artist’s desire to question and refresh our perception of the familiar.'
Text sourced from Artslant by Michelle Levy
